A variety of blasting media are presently known and employed in the blasting art. Although the known blasting medias are suitable for many applications, such medias are either marginally acceptable or unacceptable for other applications, especially where excessive wear or damage to the surface being cleaned must be avoided or improved surface preparation must be achieved.
A further problem associated with known blasting media is that upon impact of the blasting media against a surface being treated, the blasting media tends to at least partially abrade, fracture and/or disintegrate into small particulate matter causing dust. As traditional blasting medias are generally a single component, i.e. sand, garnet, steel grit, their effectiveness gradually decreases as the media particles breakdown into smaller particles and/or fines. The breakdown of the blasting media promotes a larger consumption of the media for a given blasting operation and thereby results in inefficient use of the media material. In addition, due to a variety of inefficiencies occurring during discharge of the blasting media from the pressurized blasting device, the treatment of the surface by the blasting media is not as effective as it could be with a more efficient blasting media. Lastly, all presently know blasting media are not readily recyclable.
Wherefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a media which overcomes the aforementioned problems associated with prior art medias and achieves suitable surface preparation and cleaning of the article to be treated.
A further object of the present invention is to provide blasting media which increases penetration of the abrasive material into the surface being treated so that the treated surface has a better surface profile to facilitate the application of a material, such as paint, onto the treated surface.
A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved blasting media which minimizes the consumption of media and also minimizes the amount of dust created during surface treatment of an object.
Another object of the invention is to provide media which can be efficiently discharged from suitable blasting equipment thereby to maximize the blasting media's impact and penetration into the surface being treated.
Yet another object of the invention is to limit rebound of the blasting media, after impacting against the surface being cleaned, by absorbing a substantial portion of the rebound energy of the blasting media via a media carrier component.
A still further object of the invention is to provide media which consists of a plurality of abrasive components combined with one another by at least one carrier component so as to form a larger particle to assist with deeper surface penetration and more effective cleaning. The carrier component can be selected so as to chip, peel or wear at a desired rate, preferably faster than the abrasive material, whereby further abrasive material is exposed as the carrier component wears away for treating the surface.
Still another object of the invention is to facilitate recycling, rebuilding, regenerating, recombining, reusing and/or repairing of the blasting media on site to minimize the waste associated with a blasting operation and maximize efficient use of the blasting media.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method of collecting, screening, sifting and/or separating of the used composite blasting media from the debris and other contaminants and to clean and recycle the composite blasting media to produce new granules of the composite blasting media which each contain additional abrasive component and/or carrier component.
A further object of the invention is to select the carrier component to be capable of physically carrying the abrasive component while controlling dust and prolonging the integrity of the abrasive component. As the composite blasting media begins to wear, the composite blasting media is recycled by adding additional abrasive component and/or carrier component to the used composite blasting media and this mixture is formed into new larger granules each containing the carrier component and the abrasive component.
Still another object of the invention is to add a liquid or solid substance or a bacteria or fungus to the composite blasting media which will assist the composite blasting media in decomposing or decompose the absorbed contaminant and debris over a desired period of time. The substance is typically added just prior to use.
These and other objects of the invention will better understood by those skilled in the art by having reference to the appended drawings and the following description.